UT football: Higgins leaves team

AUSTIN — Texas defensive tackle Tyrell Higgins has left the team and will no longer play for the Longhorns, a UT official said Wednesday.

Higgins, a junior from Clemens who started two games in September but was relegated to the bench for much of the past two months, came to the decision in agreement with the UT coaching staff, Longhorns spokesman John Bianco said.

Higgins’ mother Melanie said Wednesday morning she did not know her son had quit the team, and said the family had a meeting with UT coaches scheduled for Dec. 13. But she also said she knew her son was considering walking away from the Longhorns.

“He’s at the stage where he wants to be somewhere where he can get some playing time,” Melanie Higgins said.

Higgins already was in his second stint with UT. After signing with the Longhorns in 2007, he left the school the next spring for personal reasons. After returning as a walk-on in 2008, he showed enough improvement in his work ethic that the coaches voted to award him with a scholarship last August.

But after two early starts, he was passed by fellow tackles Alex Okafor, Calvin Howell and Ashton Dorsey. He wasn’t on the Longhorns’ final two-deep roster.